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Hello and welcome to Little Learners. So many of you have been asking for this video for so long
and I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to get to it. As some of you may know I did do some
filming and lost the footage and this was one of the videos that was in this footage. So let's get
into it. Reading to children might seem like a really simple thing but for many people it can
make them feel a bit nervous. Do I have to do silly voices? Will children actually listen to me? How do
I make the story interesting and maintain their attention? All very valid questions which I hope
I will be answering in this video for you. So first of all it's really important of course to have
age-appropriate reading material .My specialty is EYFS and so I have chosen 'We're Going on a Bear
Hunt', a very, very popular book which children above EYFS age will also really enjoy. I'll
tell you some things that I really like about this book and why it's a great one to choose.
First of all it has lots of repetition in it, so every other page: 'we're going on a bear hunt,
we're going to catch a big one, we're not scared!' and it's something that children can then learn
and join in with. Joining in with stories is really important which we will get onto later.
The book also has really lovely illustrations and pictures are so important for children's
reading. Looking at picture books with children is something you should absolutely do. Books
don't have to have words in them for children to enjoy them and to explore them. Understanding
what's going on in pictures and understanding a story from the pictures is something that can
help children with their comprehension skills when they do come to reading words later on. So
please don't be worried if you've got books that don't have words in because they are so important
even for older children. So I thought what I would do is just read a little bit of this story so you
can see how I would read it and then I'll go into a little bit more detail about what you might do
when you're reading a story to children. Before starting the story I might even ask questions
about the cover, so the picture on the front and the name of the story. What do children
think is going to happen in the story? Just to get a bit of a conversation going and exploring
those comprehension skills about predicting what might happen. [Reading with expression] 'We're going on a bear hunt,
we're going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day, we're not scared! Uh oh! Grass. Long, wavy grass.
We can't go over it, we can't go under it. Oh no! We've got to go through it!' So as you can see there
I am really using expression in my voice for the different sentences. Don't worry if you feel silly
when you're doing this, it's really a great way to engage children rather than just reading like this:
[Reading with no expression:/monotone] 'We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day! We're not scared.'
Reading it like that, kind of more monotone, how you might read to yourself,
is not as engaging for children as [Reading with expression] 'We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one!'
Now this part of this story repeats and repeats and repeats, so as you go through the story or
if children have already heard this story before you can encourage them to join in. So you might say
'We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one! What a beautiful day. We're not...' [pause]
and wait for them to join in, and as you go through the story they'll be able to join in even more of
that. Also look out for opportunities for children to get a bit active when you're reading a story,
if that's appropriate, obviously if you're doing a bedtime story you might not want them to be
getting really active! But for example on this page we have the grass being 'swishy swashy, swishy
swashy' so we can pretend to be the grass and be 'swishy swashy'. When you're going through the story
you can be asking children questions. You don't have to but this can be another way to extend
their learning and to engage them in the story. So for example on this page the family is going
through a river : 'splash splosh, splash splosh', what can you see in this picture? They might
say they can see that they've taken their shoes off,. or that the baby is on the daddy's shoulders.
What do you think it feels like in the river? Have you ever been in a river before? What would you
do if you got to a river and you needed to cross it? They might say they would swim, they might say
they'd find a boat, but these are just different questions you can ask to extend their learning.
Of course if you are reading to a child who is non-verbal at the moment or doesn't have that
many words you might want to keep your questions a little bit more closed. So if you know a child can
say 'yes' or 'no' then you can ask yes or no questions such as, 'Do you think it would be cold?', 'Do you think
it would be wet?', 'Would you like to go through a river?' Asking children questions that you know they
have the words to answer. This allows them to be involved and engaged with the story in a way that
is appropriate for their level. If children are struggling to answer your questions, you might want
to try modelling the answers. For example when the family is going through a snowstorm you might say,
'Oh do you remember when we saw snow? It was so chilly wasn't it?' and you can be talking
about your own ideas about the story. So to recap so far we have making sure children can
see the story, reading with expression and asking relevant questions during the story. If you are
reading to a child who can read or is starting to be able to read you might want to invite them to
read some of the story as well. So for example if you have a child who is learning phonics or they
know their 26 letter sounds and they're starting to blend sounds together to make whole words, you
might want to ask them to sound out the word, 'not'. So you can say, 'we're' and they can sound out: n - o - t.
'not'. Great! 'We're not scared.' So that's another way that you can involve them in the reading. Of course
if you're reading to a child who has a much higher level of fluency when reading you can invite them
to read whole pages, you can take a turn, they can take a turn, so that they don't feel like the
pressure is all on them to read, but you are still getting to hear them read and enjoying the book
together. Sometimes it's a good idea if you haven't read a story before to go through it beforehand so
that you know key moments that you really want to bring expression into your voice. So for example in
this story they reach a cave, 'tip toe, tip toe tip toe, what's that?' You can pause on this page and say,
'What do you think they can see?' 'One shiny wet nose, two big furry ears, two big goggly eyes... it's a bear!'
Again, please don't feel like you're being really silly when you're reading this way, it is a way to
really excite and engage children in reading and I understand that for a lot of people this might
not come naturally and it takes a bit of practice and that is okay. In order to practice you might
even want to take one of your children's books and read it to yourself on your own, practicing
that expression. It's okay if you need to do this, as I said this does not come naturally to everyone.
So we've talked a lot about how to read to children and how to involve them in the story.
When you are listening to children read, it is slightly different because obviously you are
focusing on them reading. If they are a little bit nervous or apprehensive about reading themselves
then you might want to take the turns approach, so they read a page, you read a page. This can really
ease children into reading and help them with their anxieties about getting things wrong because
the pressure is not all on them. So this book contains a lot of repetition that children
can join in with, other books I really like that contain repetition are 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar',
the 'That's Not My...' series and Julia Donaldson books such as 'The Gruffalo' and 'Room on the Broom'.
If you're finding that a child doesn't really want to engage in reading a story, think about what their
interests are. For children in early education, and to be honest for everyone they are going to be a
lot more interested in something that they enjoy. So if your child is really interested in dinosaurs,
find some stories about dinosaurs. If your child is really interested in cars or pirates or princesses,
find books around things that they enjoy and are interested in. Also don't forget that you can read
nonfiction books with children these might be information books around a subject a child enjoys ,
sensory books or even books that focus on math skills like counting. I really hope this video
has helped, if you do have any questions pop them in the comments section below,
I will be happy to answer them. If you enjoyed this video please give it a like as it really
helps out the channel and if you haven't already do click that subscribe button so
that you see more videos just like this thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time.
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